A cancer-fighting drug already at the center of multiple late-stage clinical trials with a Big Pharma company is headlining two more deals involving San Francisco-based Nektar Therapeutics Inc.
Both deals center on the use of bempegaldesleukin — also known simply as "bempeg" or NKTR-214 — in combination with Merck & Co.'s Keytruda against types of head and neck cancer. But the collaborations differ in structure: One, with Merck itself, is a more traditional agreement where Nekar (NASDAQ: NKTR) picks up the cost; the other, with Pleasanton's SFJ Pharmaceuticals, gives Nektar up to $150 million to complete a study but with Nektar making annual milestone payments back to SFJ over seven to eight years.
Nektar CEO Howard Robin is known for engineering low-risk, high-reward collaborations that have helped shape the cancer and autoimmune diseases company. And his latest deals appear to have the early blessings of Wall Street: Nektar stock was up 16% in mid-morning trading Wednesday to $26.03 per share.
Bempeg already is the centerpiece of a potential $1 billion collaboration in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb & Co.'s (NYSE: BMY) Opdivo. That deal has four ongoing late-stage clinical trials in metastatic melanoma, kidney cancer, muscle-invasive bladder cancer and adjuvant melanoma as well as a Phase II trial in urothelial cancer.
In the pact with SFJ, a company backed by venture capital firm Abingworth and Blackstone Life Sciences, SFJ will manage a Phase II/III clinical study of bempeg plus Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab, aimed at winning Food and Drug Administration approval to treat a type of head and neck cancer that expresses the protein PD-L1.
If the combo wins FDA approvals, Nektar will make payments starting after the cliical trial is completed, probably in 2024. If bempeg doesn't win approval for one or more indications, Nektar will not owe indication-related payments to SFJ.
"This innovative collaboration with SFJ provides Nektar with substantial nondilutive funding to broaden the registrational program for bempeg," Robin said in a statement.
The deal with Merck (NYSE: MRK) focuses on the combination of bempeg and Keytruda as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic or unresectable recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck that express PD-L1.
The 500-patient study, which will be conducted by Nektar, will start in the second half of this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.